Record-breaking downpours across Japan’s Kyushu region triggered floods and landslides that left at least one person dead, two in cardiopulmonary arrest and several others missing, according to prefectural authorities and public broadcaster NHK. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued special heavy-rain warnings for seven municipalities in Kumamoto on Monday before downgrading them later in the day, but urged residents to remain on high alert as saturated soil keeps the risk of additional landslides high. Authorities said the confirmed fatality was a 30-year-old woman whose house in Kagoshima’s Aira City was destroyed by a mudslide. In Fukuoka’s Fukutsu City a man and a woman in their 60s were swept away when the Saigō River overflowed, while in Kumamoto’s Kosa Town a father caught outside a vehicle struck by a landslide was found with no pulse. Search-and-rescue teams are also hunting for people feared missing in flooded neighbourhoods of Tamana and other communities. The rain paralysed transport at the height of the summer Obon holiday rush. JR West suspended Sanyo Shinkansen services between Hiroshima and Hakata, cancelling 137 trains, delaying 60 more and stranding more than 67,000 passengers; a Nozomi service finally reached Hakata 12.5 hours behind schedule. JR Kyushu halted all Kyushu Shinkansen operations overnight before resuming limited services between Hakata and Kumamoto on Monday afternoon. Highways were clogged with holiday traffic as sections flooded or were closed as a precaution. Prime Minister Shinji Ishiba instructed the Cabinet’s crisis-management centre to prioritise lifesaving measures and mobilise Self-Defence Forces when requested. The government invoked the Disaster Relief Law for 10 cities and towns in Kumamoto, while local officials opened hundreds of shelters for roughly three million people who had been urged to evacuate. Meteorologists warn that the stalled front could dump additional torrential rain on Kyushu and parts of western Honshu, with a separate tropical storm expected to strengthen south of Okinawa.